Intelligence Chief Is Urged To Assert Powers Quickly

By DOUGLAS JEHL

Published: April 11, 2005

Not since 1947, when the job of secretary of defense was established, has a government position materialized with as much fanfare, expectation and doubt as now surround the director of national intelligence, a post whose contours remain anything but clear.

The post was signed into law in December, and its first holder was chosen in February, with President Bush's nomination of John D. Negroponte. But only now, as Mr. Negroponte prepares for a Senate confirmation hearing on Tuesday, is it likely to become clear whether he intends to model himself more as an assertive leader or a behind-the-scenes overseer.

A wide range of people who have been advising Mr. Negroponte have urged him to interpret his powers broadly, participants in the conversations say. They have argued that Mr. Negroponte must act swiftly to demonstrate to the Central Intelligence Agency and the Pentagon that he is in charge of intelligence agencies that have until now reported to other masters.

''Negroponte doesn't have much time,'' said Richard J. Kerr, a former deputy director of central intelligence who has been advising Mr. Negroponte. ''This is a very reflexive set of organizations, and they're very good at adapting you to them, if you don't adapt them to you. Even if it's mostly symbolic, it's important that he make a big gesture quickly, to stomp his feet and let people know he's in charge.''

Mr. Negroponte, most recently the ambassador to Iraq, has said nothing in public about his plans since Mr. Bush nominated him to the post. Lt. Gen. Michael V. Hayden of the Air Force, who now leads the National Security Agency but has been nominated as Mr. Negroponte's deputy, has also been silent.

But behind the scenes, some participants say, Mr. Negroponte and General Hayden have been consulting with lawmakers and military and intelligence officials in an effort to flesh out their new roles, under a law that has assigned them vast responsibilities but only limited powers.

Among expected frictions are early tests of wills between Mr. Negroponte and Defense Secretary Donald H. Rumsfeld, who will continue to control the government's biggest and richest intelligence agencies, including those responsible for eavesdropping and satellite reconnaissance. The Pentagon is also moving to assert a more active role in human spying operations.

Representative Jane Harman of California, the top Democrat on the House Intelligence Committee and a principal author of the legislation that created the new job, said in an interview that she had met recently with Mr. Negroponte and General Hayden to deliver a stark warning.

''I told them they've got to be in charge,'' Ms. Harman said. ''I said they've got to win the first turf battles even if they're about the table napkins. I said it's extremely important. There's a six-month window before the turf-protectors and the forces of inertia in Washington will destroy their ability to succeed.

''The model not to replicate is what happened to Tom Ridge at Homeland Security,'' Ms. Harman said, referring to the Bush administration's previous experience in creating a major new post, one whose record has been uneven. Compared with Iraq, and Mr. Negroponte's tenure there, Ms. Harman said, ''This theater won't have the same physical threats, but it has some of the same potential for political insurgencies.''

Both nominations have won broad bipartisan praise, and Mr. Negroponte and General Hayden are expected to be swiftly confirmed by the Senate. The Senate Intelligence Committee has scheduled only a single day of hearings for Mr. Negroponte, with no witnesses to be called other than the nominee himself.

A White House spokeswoman, Erin Healy, said that neither Mr. Negroponte nor General Hayden could comment for this article, in deference to an unwritten rule that forbids nominees from speaking out before confirmation. But people who have heard the two men discuss their vision of the jobs say they have hardly been timid.

''I don't think either of these guys is going to defer to Rumsfeld or Goss,'' one intelligence official said, referring to Porter J. Goss, the director of central intelligence, whose title and authority will shrink to responsibility for the C.I.A. alone when the director of national intelligence is confirmed. The official did not want to be identified for fear of retribution.

Still, there is much that remains uncertain. For now, Mr. Negroponte and General Hayden have set up shop in the New Executive Office Building, across the street from the White House, but it is not clear where they will establish a more permanent base. One early option, the C.I.A.'s headquarters in suburban Virginia, now seems less likely than before, administration officials said, and a new contender is Bolling Air Force Base near Washington, where they would not have to displace Mr. Goss from his suite.

For now, Mr. Bush and his top aides have signaled strong support for Mr. Negroponte, saying most tellingly that they expect him, and not Mr. Goss, to be responsible for the intelligence briefings presented at the White House each morning. The White House has also embraced last month's findings of the presidential commission on unconventional weapons, which described the new intelligence chief's powers as ''limited in some respects'' and called for them to be strengthened in many instances beyond what is spelled out in the law.

At the White House, officials say, Mr. Bush has assigned Stephen J. Hadley, the national security adviser, and Frances Fragos Townsend, the domestic security adviser, to review the recommendations and report back by June about further steps. Senior White House officials have also cautioned federal agencies against resisting those recommendations or seeking to undermine Mr. Negroponte's powers, government officials said.

But even people close to Mr. Negroponte and General Hayden say they cannot be sure what stance Mr. Bush and Vice President Dick Cheney might take in disputes, particularly those that might pit the intelligence chiefs against Mr. Rumsfeld. With more than 30 years of experience in Washington, Mr. Rumsfeld is a widely acknowledged master of bureaucratic politics, and his deputies, including Stephen A. Cambone, the under secretary of defense for intelligence, have been pressing for expansions in the Pentagon's spying operations into areas that have traditionally been the purview of the C.I.A.

Congress would not have created the posts had it not been for the intelligence failures on Iraq and the Sept. 11 attacks, and people who have talked to Mr. Negroponte and Mr. Hayden said they saw an urgency in moving quickly to repair not only the flaws that contributed to those missteps but also the crisis of confidence that has followed.

''If we don't move fast, we will lose the ability to assess enormous threats correctly, from North Korea and Iran and so forth,'' Ms. Harman said. ''But we're also going to lose many good people from the intelligence agencies who are clearly demoralized at this point and are in search of clear, charismatic leadership.''

Photo: Tradition will be neither a guide nor a burden for John D. Negroponte, President Bush's choice to be the first director of national intelligence. (Photo by Doug Mills/The New York Times)